|
| |
| |
| |
| |
| |
| |
Make provision in relation to the awarding by government departments and |
| |
agencies of research and development contracts for innovative technologies; |
| |
and for connected purposes. |
| |
Be it enacted by the Queen’s most Excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and |
| |
consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this present |
| |
Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:— |
| |
| |
(1) | The purposes of this Act are— |
| |
(a) | to facilitate the identification of requirements for innovative new |
| |
technologies with the potential to enhance the effectiveness of |
| |
government departments and agencies in meeting value for money and |
| 5 |
strategic objectives, and |
| |
(b) | to facilitate the solicitation and commissioning by government |
| |
departments and agencies of research and development contracts with |
| |
industry for the development and trialling of technologies and |
| |
solutions capable of meeting those objectives. |
| 10 |
(2) | The activities undertaken in pursuance of this Act shall be known as the |
| |
| |
2 | Furtherance of purposes of Act |
| |
(1) | It shall be the duty of the Secretary of State to further the purposes of this Act |
| |
by taking such steps as he deems expedient to support and promote the |
| 15 |
| |
(2) | Subject to subsection (3), the Secretary of State may by order prescribe any |
| |
government department or agency for the purposes of this Act. |
| |
(3) | It shall be the duty of the Secretary to prescribe under subsection (2) any |
| |
government department or agency which, in his opinion, has an annual |
| 20 |
research and development budget of more than £20 million. |
| |
(4) | The Schedule to this Act has effect in relation to any prescribed body. |
| |
| |
| |
| |
|
| |
| |
(5) | The Secretary of State may make regulations amending or varying the |
| |
provisions of the Schedule. |
| |
(6) | In this Act “prescribed body” means a government department or agency |
| |
which has been prescribed by an order under subsection (2). |
| |
3 | Report on operation of Act |
| 5 |
(1) | Two years after the coming into force of this Act, and every two years |
| |
thereafter, the Secretary of State must publish an evaluation report on the |
| |
| |
(2) | Each report published in accordance with subsection (1) must contain— |
| |
(a) | aggregate statistics for each prescribed body on solicitations and |
| 10 |
contracts awarded (number and value by phase); |
| |
(b) | an assessment of conformity with this Act and any associated |
| |
| |
(c) | aggregate statistics for each prescribed body showing the number and |
| |
volume of awards by company, together with a list of any companies to |
| 15 |
which awards have been made more than once; |
| |
(d) | case studies and aggregate measures of commercial or economic |
| |
| |
(e) | any recommendations for improvements to the Genesis Programme; |
| |
(f) | any other matter which the Secretary of State considers appropriate. |
| 20 |
| |
(1) | The power of the Secretary of State to make an order or regulations under this |
| |
Act is exercisable by statutory instrument. |
| |
(2) | A statutory instrument containing regulations under section 2(5) may not be |
| |
made unless a draft of the instrument has been laid before and approved by a |
| 25 |
resolution of both Houses of Parliament. |
| |
(3) | A statutory instrument containing— |
| |
(a) | an order under section 2(2), or |
| |
(b) | regulations under paragraph 8(4) of the Schedule, |
| |
| is subject to annulment in pursuance of a resolution of either House of |
| 30 |
| |
5 | Short title, commencement and extent |
| |
(1) | This Act may be cited as the Procurement of Innovative Technologies and |
| |
| |
(2) | This Act shall come into force at the end of a period of eighteen months |
| 35 |
beginning with the day on which this Act is passed, unless the Secretary of |
| |
State by order appoints an earlier day. |
| |
(3) | This Act extends to Northern Ireland (as well as to England and Wales and |
| |
| |
| |
| |
|
| |
| |
| |
| |
Procurement of Innovative Technologies and Research — The Genesis |
| |
| |
1 | A prescribed body which has an annual research and development budget |
| |
of more than £20 million must allocate at least 2.5 per cent of its budget for |
| 5 |
disbursement as contracts (“Innovation Contracts”) with industrial |
| |
companies to research, develop and trial innovative technologies with the |
| |
potential to improve the body’s effectiveness, meet its objectives or |
| |
discharge its obligations. |
| |
2 (1) | Innovation Contracts must be solicited and awarded within the framework |
| 10 |
defined by this Act subject to the relevant EU Procurement Directives. |
| |
(2) | Departmental processes must accord with such detailed guidelines as may |
| |
be issued by the Secretary of State from time to time. |
| |
3 (1) | A prescribed body must announce at least twice each year the fields in which |
| |
it is interested in receiving submissions. |
| 15 |
(2) | Each solicitation must include requirements specifications in accordance |
| |
| |
4 | The fields covered by solicitations shall be determined by the prescribed |
| |
body concerned in relation to relevant factors, including— |
| |
(a) | the body’s objectives; |
| 20 |
(b) | the body’s technology strategy; |
| |
(c) | the timing of potential commercial implementation. |
| |
5 | Contracts must be solicited and awarded only for— |
| |
(a) | technical feasibility studies, |
| |
(b) | technology demonstrators, |
| 25 |
(c) | prototype products and systems, or |
| |
(d) | technology evaluation projects. |
| |
6 (1) | Each solicitation must be prepared by a project manager with sufficient |
| |
| |
(a) | define the requirement (typically at the functional level, taking |
| 30 |
account of the adequacy of existing solutions), |
| |
(b) | evaluate submissions, |
| |
(c) | manage contracts from a customer perspective, and |
| |
| |
(2) | Where appropriate, the task referred to in sub-paragraph (1) may be |
| 35 |
undertaken in conjunction with an end user of the technology, who may |
| |
| |
(a) | a person within the prescribed body concerned, or |
| |
(b) | a person or an organisation carrying out activities funded by the |
| |
body or under the direction or guidance of the body. |
| 40 |
| |
| |
|
| |
| |
7 | Requirements may be either at the system or the component level, but in |
| |
each case must be defined so that if the requirements are met, in the view of |
| |
the project manager, the technology would— |
| |
(a) | give significant performance improvements over existing, |
| |
commercially available technologies or solutions; |
| 5 |
(b) | overcome major constraints or limitations of existing, commercially |
| |
available technologies or solutions; or |
| |
(c) | enable applications or objectives to be achieved which are not |
| |
currently addressed (adequately or at all) by existing, commercially |
| |
available technologies or solutions. |
| 10 |
8 (1) | The value of any Innovation Contract shall not exceed £500,000 except in |
| |
prescribed circumstances. |
| |
(2) | Contracts of less than the EU threshold value (“Type 1 Innovation |
| |
Contracts”) may only be awarded to United Kingdom companies. |
| |
(3) | Except as specified in paragraph 9, contracts above the EU threshold value |
| 15 |
(“Type 2 Innovation Contracts”) may be awarded to any EU business in |
| |
accordance with the relevant EU Procurement Directives. |
| |
(4) | In sub-paragraph (1), “prescribed” means prescribed by the Secretary of |
| |
| |
9 | Contracts of all sizes awarded in the field of defence, other contracts raising |
| 20 |
issues of security and secret contracts awarded under the Genesis |
| |
Programme may, at the discretion of the awarding body, be restricted to |
| |
United Kingdom companies. |
| |
10 (1) | Prescribed bodies shall publish solicitations in two rounds each year at |
| |
intervals of not less than 6 months and not more than 8 months. |
| 25 |
(2) | The number and total value of solicitations for each year should be such as |
| |
to ensure competition both among companies making submissions and |
| |
| |
11 | The criteria used by prescribed bodies for evaluating submissions for Type |
| |
1 Innovation Contracts shall include— |
| 30 |
(a) | relevance to the body’s aims and objectives; |
| |
(b) | relevance to the body’s technology strategy; |
| |
(c) | the level of innovation entailed; |
| |
(d) | the quality of science or technology; |
| |
(e) | the company’s record in carrying out previous Genesis Programme |
| 35 |
contracts, if any, taking account of the level of risk associated with |
| |
research and development projects. |
| |
12 | The criteria used by prescribed bodies for evaluating submissions for Type |
| |
2 Innovation Contracts shall include— |
| |
(a) | relevance to the body’s aims and objectives; |
| 40 |
(b) | relevance to the body’s technology strategy; |
| |
(c) | the level of innovation entailed; |
| |
(d) | the quality of science, technology or engineering; |
| |
(e) | the company’s record in carrying out previous Genesis Programme |
| |
contracts, if any, taking account of the level of risk associated with |
| 45 |
research and development projects; |
| |
| |
| |
|
| |
| |
(f) | the probability of the company’s meeting the requirements |
| |
specifications, assessed according to previously successful contracts |
| |
in the relevant field for public bodies in the United Kingdom or |
| |
| |
(g) | the likelihood of commercialisation, further research and |
| 5 |
development funding from a third party, or subsequent purchases or |
| |
research and development funding from the prescribed body. |
| |
13 | There shall be no restriction on the number of Innovation Contracts which |
| |
may be awarded to a company in any one year, but the effectiveness with |
| |
which past contracts have been undertaken or exploited further |
| 10 |
commercially may be taken into account in awarding future contracts. |
| |
14 | Each prescribed body participating in the Genesis Programme must— |
| |
(a) | ensure that processes for solicitation, award of innovation contracts |
| |
and evaluation of deliverables are timely, efficient and accessible, |
| |
| 15 |
(b) | provide the Secretary of State with such information as he |
| |
determines to be necessary for the preparation of reports to be |
| |
published under section 3. |
| |
15 | Each prescribed body participating in the Genesis Programme must |
| |
maintain a website devoted to its participation in the Programme on which |
| 20 |
it must publish the following information on solicitations and awards— |
| |
(a) | announcements of future solicitations, timetables and procedures, |
| |
together with guidelines for submissions; |
| |
(b) | details of requirements specifications and timetable; |
| |
(c) | names and addresses of companies awarded contracts, together with |
| 25 |
the title and value of the contract (which information shall be |
| |
published within 5 days of the award); |
| |
(d) | the total number and value of contracts awarded following each |
| |
| |
16 (1) | Requirements specifications must be published at least 8 weeks before the |
| 30 |
deadline for submissions. |
| |
(2) | Contracts must be awarded within 8 weeks of that deadline. |
| |
17 (1) | Unless sub-paragraph (2) applies, any intellectual property generated |
| |
during a contract shall belong to the contracting company. |
| |
(2) | This sub-paragraph applies if the prescribed body has contributed |
| 35 |
intellectual property to the project and has indicated that in the |
| |
requirements specification. |
| |
(3) | If sub-paragraph (2) applies, the prescribed body may negotiate a royalty |
| |
with the contracting company. |
| |
18 | A prescribed body which is unable to comply with the requirements of |
| 40 |
paragraph 1 of this Schedule must inform the Treasury and the Secretary of |
| |
State at least 3 months before the end of the relevant financial year in order |
| |
that an appropriate proportion of its budget may be reallocated to other |
| |
prescribed bodies for funding additional Innovation Contract submissions |
| |
during the remainder of that financial year. |
| 45 |
| |
“the EU Procurement Directives” means— |
| |
| |
| |
